More residential development could be on Strathroy-Caradoc’s horizon. At council Monday night, was a Statutory Public Meeting focused on a Strathroy Scoped Settlement Boundary Review and council was presented with information regarding three areas of land.
Area 1 designated as an Urban Reserve Area on Carroll Street at Saxton Road, Area 2 was transferred from Adelaide-Metcalfe in 2017, currently undesignated and is to the West of Darcy Drive and north of MacDonald Street and Area 3 also transferred from Adelaide-Metcalfe but in 2009 is currently undesignated and situated north of Albert Street and west of Jean Street and mostly behind Seasons Retirement Community.
Some of these areas which many people may not know are actually in Ward 2 and Councillor John Brennan feels it’s important to decipher between a settlement population and a Ward population.
The Strathroy boundary itself is indeed growing in all directions and Brennan commented that future discussions regarding how that affects boundary communities could be a key discussion.
Council received the report for information, and approved that public comments and feedback received during the Statutory Public Meeting be included in the official consultation record for further consideration as part of Official Plan Amendment No. 13.
The proposed rezoning of all three areas would be for a residential status except for a small section in Area 3 by Seasons that is anticipated to have no road access in the near future, and also due to a storm drain and which will be designated as Agricultural.
Council may consider adopting OPA #13 at a future Council meeting at which time it will be forwarded on to the County of Middlesex for final approval.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION:
As per the requirements of the Planning Act, a virtual Public Open House was held April 26, 2021 to present the proposed Official Plan amendment to members of the public and garner feedback. WSP, a planning consultant firm presented the findings of the Scoped Boundary Review and answered questions regarding the proposed land-use designations for the three areas.
No written submissions from the public have been received at the time of writing the subject report.
The St. Clair Region Conservation Authority (SCRCA) advised of no concerns with the amendment and submitted a recommendation that a portion of Area 3 be placed into the ‘Open Space’ designation.
Municipal staff and WSP have begun work on the next phase of the 5-year Official Plan review, which involves a fulsome background review of policy and legislative changes at the Provincial, County, and Municipality level since Strathroy-Caradoc’s Official Plan was last updated in 2015.